'We need to raise our game': the challenges facing the public service in 2017

A government data centre in Ottawa - one of more than 500 in Canada - that provides all the IT services for several dozen government agencies, including Elections Canada, CMHC, employment and social development. Julie Oliver/PostmediaJULIE OLIVER / Postmedia

When Michael Wernick emerged as the federal government’s top bureaucrat 16 months ago, he had little idea just how radically the job of clerk of the privy council was about to change.

Usually the clerk’s emphasis is on policy, on providing cabinet with expert, non-partisan advice. But Wernick very quickly learned his main focus would instead be government operations.

Just weeks after he settled in, federal managers launched Phoenix, the massive, multi-year software project meant to modernize the pay system for hundreds of thousands of government employees. The botched rollout, which technology experts are still trying to rectify, was a stark reminder of how Wernick’s predecessors had failed to equip the public service with the skills necessary to modernize the federal government’s electronic backbone.

“We need to raise our game in project management,” Wernick acknowledged last week in his annual report to the prime minister on the state of the public service. “Progress has been slower than expected.”

Indeed, departments and agencies across government are struggling with billions of dollars worth of information technology projects. These projects were intended to improve online access for Canadians, and to increase the efficiency of government.

Shared Services Canada — the government’s central computer services agency — recently estimated that nearly a dozen significant projects are behind schedule, over budget, or both. These include Phoenix and the very late project to upgrade the government’s email system. Both are classified “red.” Another two dozen projects are coded “yellow”, as they are merely in danger of running off the rails.

Not surprisingly, the Liberal government is increasingly anxious that this mess be dealt with well before the next general election, scheduled for 2019.

The question is, how? The government has under-invested for decades in computer networks, telecommunications systems and online services. The result is that most aspects of this complicated system must be upgraded within desperately short time frames. Older data centres and software are being pressed into service far longer than planned, forcing the government to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on stopgap measures. This is money that could have been invested in new gear or re-engineered services.

Hiring private contractors and outside experts to fix things isn’t a panacea. Shared Services, after all, outsourced the job of streamlining and upgrading the government’s email systems to Bell Canada and CGI Group — and that $400-million project is running three years late, according to current projections.

Boosting the number of in-house employees with experience in information technology is an option. But government insiders cite two major difficulties: One is the complex process of managing large projects across multiple agencies; the other has to do with qualifications — the top echelons of the bureaucracy are staffed mainly by policy experts, not people with hands-on knowledge of the government’s technical operations.

Which brings us back to Wernick. As the government’s top bureaucrat, he has special responsibility for ensuring the public service is trained for the right mission — and in this case, the job has everything to do with IT.

Wernick pointed out last week that he is not starting from scratch. Public servants have successfully managed a number of complex technology files, including a multiyear upgrade of military pension services. Building projects managed by Public Service and Procurement Canada, notably in the Parliament Hill district, have generally been done on time and within budget. Wernick has also boosted training in a handful of departments, including Public Service and Procurement, which handles most of the government’s contracting.

To date, the Liberals appear to have relied far more heavily on outside experts than in-house staff. Consider how government staffing levels have changed from April 1, 2016, to April 1, 2017 — the first full fiscal year under the Liberals and most of Wernick’s tenure as clerk.

The Citizen obtained detailed data from nine of the largest federal departments, which collectively account for nearly 80 per cent of the government’s total workforce.

Our survey shows the group of nine’s workforce grew by 4,500 or just 1.6 per cent year over year. Within the national capital region, these departments added about 1,700 workers, for a year over year gain of 2.6 per cent.

While growth overall was slow, two of the departments added staff at a reasonable clip — Public Service and Procurement (up 5.8 per cent) and Employment and Social Development (up 6.2 per cent). The first is responsible for managing the Phoenix Pay projects (among many other procurements) while the second department is one of the government’s most technology intensive. Canadians tap the Employment and Social Development website to apply for Canada Pension Plan payments, old age security and employment insurance, among other things. Whether hiring in these departments increased because of IT spending is unclear.

Certainly the government has boosted its use of professional services and staffing services firms, such as Calian. To what extent can be gauged from an anomaly in how government and Statistics Canada track employment.

StatCan, for instance, has reported that the federal government swelled by 27,100 employees (eight per cent) in the year ended March 2017 — including 23,000 within the national capital region and 4,100 in the rest of the country. Yet, over the same period, the government’s top nine departments — a 78 per cent sample — grew less than two per cent overall.

StatCan pointed to two potential culprits when queried about the differences between its data and the departments’ own employment records. First, StatCan officials prepare their estimates by surveying households; they don’t get their data directly from the departments. (A separate survey by Treasury Board does that but this won’t be available until the summer). Second, StatCan acknowledges that “respondents may report working for the government, even if they are in fact contractors providing services to federal government.”

This seems to be what is happening, with the result being that StatCan’s monthly survey is including thousands of private contractors in its tally of government employees.

Private contractors, especially those with expertise in technology, tend to be concentrated in the Ottawa region — precisely where the biggest government employment gains have been reported by StatCan. This also fits the historical pattern of departments relying on outsiders for special skills ranging from military electronics to software engineering.

Nevertheless, as Wernick has already concluded, it’s not enough just to pile on outside experts. The federal government also requires a critical mass of federal managers capable of seeing these complicated technology projects through. Developing these in-house champions might well prove Wernick’s most difficult job in the months ahead.

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